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(Rewrites to add detail on sales data)
By Gram Slattery
SAO PAULO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Brazilian retailer Carrefour Brasil posted a strong boost in third-quarter sales on Tuesday, supported in part by the end of a deflationary cycle for food products and strong growth of the firm's e-commerce initiatives.
In a securities filing, the Brazilian unit of France's Carrefour SA said revenue rose 8.1 percent in the third quarter from a year ago to 14 billion reais ($3.76 billion). Same-store sales, a closely watched metric of sales at stores open for at least 12 months, climbed 5.1 percent.
Carrefour Brasil, like competitor GPA - owned by France's Casino Guichard Perrachon SA - has consistently posted rises in net revenue in recent quarters, as a downturn in Brazil's food retail market eases and both firms expand significantly.
As in previous quarters, growth was driven mainly by Carrefour Brasil's so-called cash-and-carry format, which offers consumers a no-frills, wholesale experience.
However, Carrefour Brasil's more traditional retail formats, known collectively as Carrefour Varejo, also posted strong same-store sales, growing 3 percent from the same period last year, which the company attributed in part to the firm's rapidly growing e-commerce segment. As recently as the first quarter, same-store sales growth at Carrefour Varejo had been near zero.
E-commerce business at Carrefour Varejo jumped some 106 percent from the same quarter a year ago, the firm said, composing 6.9 percent of sales, up from 3 percent in the same quarter a year ago.
($1 = 3.73 reais) (Reporting by Gram Slattery Editing by Chris Reese)